The Imprisonment of what else, but OUR Bodies
Whose voices are the ones we hear? Why do we allow them to dictate our lifestyles? These invisible voices that have an opinion on my clothes, on my lifestyle, my liking, disliking, my actions? No matter the time or place, it always surround us. Where does it find its confidence to speak and dictate our actions and say what’s wrong and what isn’t. Why do we allow them to dictate how we live our lives?
Discipline confines us to a box that gives us no space to grow or develop into unique individuals. We police our own bodies, saying what is and what is not acceptable. We judge others the same way others criticize us. It becomes naturalized and it has confined us to become a prisoner of our own damn body. What dignifies this act? Who gives it power. What invisible power disciplines us to become what others want us to become? How does society already have a plan laid out for us? We are our own bodies. We decide what we want and do not want to do. Foucault, explains how our bodies have become objectified and we’ve been instilled to act a certain way and have been taught that our bodies were made to reproduced and to obey authority. Our bodies supposedly have a certain end goal and we must reach that point to be seen as successful and worthy of our lives. This is taught to us through certain power structures that constraint us, prohibits us and imposes duties on us. As an individual we feel helpless because of these powerful structures that tend to be against us or find it beneficial to use our own bodies.
Especially in these days, where not only people in authority are policing us, but our families, friends and strangers have begun policing us too. Both these structures have an opinion. They tell us what we can wear and what we cannot. What colors are appropriate and what is not. How is it possible it has become normalize to police anyone anywhere? The police and their authority have led us to become submissive to their words and actions.
The past few months we have seen the amount of protest and the actions from those who find themselves in power to discipline us. They begin to criticize and act against the hundred, and thousands of bodies who have different opinions on the government. But we see laws that are passed to continue disciplining our bodies to criminalize us.
Having a different opinion against those in power is already dangerous for many. But protesting and speaking our minds puts us in a radar, but individuals find ways to go around it. Being able to hide our identity allows us to speak freely and not worry about the structure trying to dominate us. We are witnesses of how the government is going about to stop protest. Wearing mask during protest is becoming a hot topic on whether it should be considered illegal to be wearing them during protest. The policing of the artifacts that we put on our bodies is not something that should be decided by laws or by anyone, but ourselves.
How many more years, centuries, eras need to pass to make the authoritative power to understand that they do not have a say or even an opinion over our bodies. They do not get to decide what we can and cannot wear at certain events. Wearing these mask puts no one in danger, however, they do not like how it unites the people for a cause. Bringing such acts brings an easy gateway to criminalized individuals and lock them away because they are going against the power and the structure.
We must stop policing our own bodies. As individuals who live in a system where it tends only favor white heterosexual men, then it is dangerous to police one another on a system that is not in favor for us. We must stop this absurdity and live our lives however we want. The less we care about others opinions, the more we will accomplish and the higher we will move up.
